Political Chic

A letter in response to Judith Thurman’s article (March 26, 2012)

Judith Thurman, in her article on the upcoming Schiaparelli and Prada exhibition, writes that “Prada joined the Communist Party, and—or but—according to different reports, she wore Saint Laurent to distribute leaflets” (A Critic at Large, March 26th). This implies a contradiction between wearing Yves Saint Laurent and sympathizing with leftist politics, when the opposite is true. Saint Laurent was only twenty-one when he became the head designer of Dior, in 1957, an extraordinary, and very public, responsibility. But as a young man who embraced bohemian Paris night life, he had one foot in the world of the youth culture that went on to challenge the establishment in the coming decade. On March 10, 1968, Saint Laurent was interviewed by Claude Berthod on the French television program “Dim Dam Dom.” His answers to the so-called Proust Questionnaire reveal Saint Laurent’s allegiance to the street over the salon: Who would you like to have been? A beatnik. What do you hate most of all? The snobbery of wealth.

Tracy Jenkins

New York City

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